Chpebuh Nation 2019 Jottings

   

Linda Garst Gupta, Cate Whitcomb and Dr. Lee Feierabend - all of us are serving on the the Christian Medical College Ludhiana USA Board -  taken at our meeting in Chicago in August 2019.

Cate Whitcomb was in India March 2019 and had visits with Deepak Dayal, Arun Kapur and Barbi Bygg Mahajan in Delhi.  Pictured in the "selfie" are Deepak and Cate at one of the 5-star havelis on the road between Dehli and Madhuban.

Pictured are Rajan Kose, Phil DeVol, John Chaffee and Ruth Morris at an Ohio gathering in the spring of 2019.

Evelyn Bryant Pitts:  Retired from teaching math at Washburn University where I had taught for about 30 years and was awarded Emeritus status in April.  I am happy that my son and his family live only about 20 minutes from us, so now that I am retired, my husband Dan and I can see our son and his wife and our granddaughters more often. The granddaughters are  5 years, 3 years and a two month old.  We are also have been able to drive to Chicago to see my daughter and her husband more often. 

        Claire Blickenstaff Beery retired from college teaching and celebrated by taking husband Bill, daughter Zoë and three friends to India for a month in October, including a magnificent week in Mussoorie.  Everyone found “their India” and Claire loved being tour guide.




       

Sherry Sergeant Cox We along with everyone else have been extremely busy this year so did not have a chance to get back with you yet.  I did want to respond to your email a little first before writing out my sentence about this years' activities. You did tell us about your mom's passing already because I remembered thinking I was so glad to have had the chance to visit with her in Madison 3 years ago when we went to see Steve's mom. Also I have talked to Linda Gupta and she told me about your new position. Congratulations!  Linda and Ashwini are planning to be here in Oklahoma next month and hope to see them for a couple days. I was going to get a picture of the 4 of us to send you for the Quad. Would mid September be too late to send that to you?  However, I will go ahead and tell you what we have been up to.   This is going to be a run-on sentence so you decide how much you can include.  January I had cataract surgery, no more contacts or glasses; February, 3rd granddaughter Caroline born; June - Steve total knee replacement surgery, now working part time as on Social Security; July - Honduras mission trip; September - both daughters moving, Sarah and Tony to Germany and Stephanie and family out to 30 acres in the country.  Otherwise, we're doing great!  Will try to get that picture sent to you as soon as they visit and see if it makes it in. Hard to believe it's been 3 years since our reunion, do you think we'll try again in 2?  Have a good fall.

Linda (Gamble) McKendry. Not retired, just retreaded... like a good tire to keep running! Managing a partnership with my sister, Susan Unger, and marketing our Sun Catcher Pendants.  www.jesmicjewelry.com  Still taking on leasehold improvements mini-commercial projects from time to time as a consultant... writing a book called, "Done-With-Dementia: Keeping Your Parents Together" that's at the editors, and loving face painting for kids at an active, popular Farmer's Market and other events. Yes!  Still married to Jim who had a vascular by-pass that was successful so we are looking forward to some R&R that comes before all these other things! Grand children are old enough to make me a Great Grandma, but no pressure!  Life is good and so is God!    

       Kathy Coleman York:  There is really nothing new from me this year. We do plan on selling our place in Florida this winter as it will free up money for more travels! Take care, Kathy

       Warren Rees: January 23, I had total replacement knee replacement of my left knee. Surgery went well but rehab was difficult it was May 3^rd before I was able to get the peddles to go all the way around on the recumbent bike. I had to get a manipulation once, and then the rehab therapist discharged me because There was still no progress and she was afraid that the insurance company would refuse payment and they would have to charge me had some blisters around the edge of my bandages which I assumed were an allergic reaction to adhesive. On August 13^th I had my right knee replaced. I made sure that they knew about my allergy to some types of adhesives, so they didn’t use any adhesive bandages, turned out the allergic reaction was not from adhesives but was fracture blisters. I won’t go into detail if you are not familiar with fracture details but google will show you some pictures of what they look like. I had blisters all over my lower leg, and they are almost dried out, but the plus is that I have almost no pain from the knee surgery and only a little aggravation from the fracture blisters. 13 days after the surgery I did a mile in 5 minutes on the recumbent bike. Hope to be off opioids by the week end and driving sometime next week.

        Miriam Haqq Prabakhar: My father passed away on May 20th. I went to the States about five days before that. The funeral was in Minnesota, with family and some close friends.  He was going to be 99 in September, so by God's grace he had a full life and was alert till the end. He was in the hospital for four days before his passing. He served with Dr. Billy Graham till he was 80 preaching in various parts of India. 

My eldest son, changed jobs and is now in Seattle, so I had a chance to visit. Seattle which is really beautiful and enjoyed time with my two grandsons. 

At the end of July my youngest son and I enjoyed a tour of Italy for ten days.  It was great. A lot of walking which  was good for my health as well!!   

Hoping that you had a great summer. With my prayers, 

       Don Camp: We’re still living in the DC area but I’m continuing to work in New York in the fall as South Asia area advisor at the US Mission to the UN.   Once that is over, we’re tentatively planning a family trip to India in January- probably not Mussoorie though.  Then focusing on helping to plan my 50th college reunion at Carleton College in June.   If you really want to know more about me, check out http://www.donaldcamp.guru

       Phil Schoonmaker: Hi Cathy, https://msteinert.com/staff/phil-schoonmaker/

 All is well. Thanks!

  

        Mary Ellen (Fritschle) Noggle-In January my precious dad went home to the Lord. He just missed his 101st birthday. I was with him and it was sweet and peaceful. The Lord was very present and even the hospice nurse remarked on how different it was to anything she had experienced before. God is indeed good, right Linda? We were very close and I have been adjusting to life without his presence. My children and grandchildren are doing well and what a great joy and gift they are. I hope and pray you are all doing well. You are often in my thoughts. Mary

Me with my grandchildren-all girls!

      Karen Smyres Wolner:  After traveling to India in the spring of 2018 and then China last fall, this has a pretty quiet year. John and I spend time on home projects,  grandchildren and feeling the pains of arthritis! Hoping to make some trips in the next year. 

     Frances Hilliard Dawson: This last year seems to have been a little of this and a little of that: trip to Spain, several to see daughter and family in Calgary, including hikes in Rockies (see picture); celebrations of friends’ milestones and for some support of their life end challenges; joy for Somali ‘daughter’ (a new Canadian) and her growing family and every day challenges and beauty. Getting back to more scheduled volunteering in the autumn. 

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     Becky Hill Cord:  I am still living in the wilds of Texas - disheartening with their love of guns. Sometimes it is scary just going to a shopping center with people carrying guns - now like good Christians they just passed a law to carry guns in church - such the times we live in. I continue to substitute teach, do Bible School crafts and write editorials to our Congressmen who seem not to actually know the law. My heart is dismayed at Christians willing to sell their souls for this President - I thought the means justifying the ends was for Russia not the USA. Sorry - I do have much joy in my granddaughter, children and friends - and when it is quiet out here.

       Richard Friedericks and Suzy McCulloch:  Two highlights for this past year - my novel, Windhorse Warrior, was published by Niyogi Books India and has been well received so far. Over Christmas we went on a Princess Cruise in New Zealand and Australia with our son Ethan and his family. Ethan’s wife Jody is Creative Director for Princess Cruises so we got a discount. 

 Mid-summer eve. Watching the sunset at North Beach in Port Townsend. Yes we are all bundled up in the summer! Left to right: back row - David (son) and Stacey (daughter-in-law) front row - Julie McCulloch (David’s wife ’70), our daughter Elizabeth with Elkie and Adelle, Finley (David & Stacey’s daughter, one of twins), Suzy, Richard, Kai and Maya (Ethan’s kids visiting on their own from LA), and Tsai with Dutchy (Tsai is the other twin).

Other than those two events, life goes on. We had six of our seven grandchildren with us at one time for a week over the summer. Then we drove four of them to Portland and after dropping two of them off continued down to Los Angeles with the other two. We stopped at Crater Lake and Lassen National Parks. On the way back from LA we stopped to see Claire (Blickenstaff) Beery and her husband Bill. 

We’ve had several visitors come through Port Townsend including Woodstock friends. We are delighted that Marg Groff (’67) and Mark Wagner (’67) have moved to Port Townsend.  

Richard and Suzy

      John Chaffee:   Compared to last year, which featured a two-week Chaffee family group (16 in all) of China, this year has been relatively quiet. I continue to enjoy my teaching and related work at Binghamton University too much to want to retire, especially since it allows me to travel, for work -- three trips to China since the tour, mainly for conferences -- and pleasure, the latter in the form of almost two weeks touring around northern Wales and southern Scotland with my London-based son, Philip. I am also singing a lot, both with my Episcopal church choir and in a couple of local groups. 

      Janet Edlefsen:  We’ve had a good and healthy year, still dividing our time between our home in Seattle and the boat we keep 80 miles north of here.  This has been my first year of full retirement and I find I’m enjoying it even more than expected.  The gift of time!

     Raj Yudisthar Isar: Only thing new this year is that we are now living in Lisbon, no longer spending 7 months of the year in Goa.  But I've lost track of whether or not I sent in any news last year.  In case I didn't, how about the following:

"Raj” Isar is now living in Lisbon, Portugal, where his work as the Education Director for the Geneva-based Aga Khan Trust for Culture keeps him busy; he continues to do some teaching, notably at The American University of Paris and Ahmedabad University."

Thanks for the news you sent and my condolences for your Mom's passing.  Your Ludhiana responsibility must be a really interesting challenge. 

      Fritz Goeth: this year’s saga started on about 15 April when my company called and asked if I were interested in coming back as a temporary employee for a few weeks.  Keep in mind that I retired, the first time, in Feb 2014.  So I made an appointment for 1 May, had lunch with a couple of young guys I’ve worked with for 30 years and said, yes, I’ll do your project.

 That very evening I was playing basketball in the driveway with the grandson and ruptured my achilles.  Called my company the next day and asked if they wanted to wait for me to recover a bit or go on to the next guy on their list.  They said they’d wait.  Surgery on 9 May, 4 weeks in a cast, 6 more weeks in a walking boot, and rehab since then.  Pretty much go where and do what I want but still not a lot of strength in that calf.

 And the project at work continues.

I assistant coached the grandson’s Little League baseball this spring and have been coerced into assistant coaching the tackle football team this fall.

And the work with the young people of Oregon who want to go to West Point continues.  Retirement may be in the future one of these days, but not this week…

Hope all is well with Chpebuh nation and thanks for doing this for us.   Fritz

Ruth Yoder Dyal: My news!  Adopted another rescue dog, now have 2 to keep me company!  Still working full time, still doing deliveries and surgery, and loving it.  Travelled to Vietnam and Cambodia this Spring-my goal, Ankor Wat surpassed my expectations.  This summer it was Norway, the Faroe and Shetland Islands, and Iceland that I found fascinating-incredible history I had not expected.  Son Jamie is in a Pediatric Cardiology fellowship at Emory, and Jon is working with CDC out of Atlanta-next week leaving for Democratic Republic of Congo to do Ebola research for a month.  Wonderful to finally have them both based in the same place.  Please come visit if you come to Florida,  this house has lots of room!!  Thanks for all your work, Cate

Class Jottings for 2018 Quadrangle

JANET EDLEFSEN finally retired fully this past spring, just in time for her 70^th birthday.  It was hard to close her counseling practice after 40 years, but the time had come!  Frank and she are enjoying free time and good health, and have spent many weeks this summer out cruising on their boat. 

DONALD CAMP spent a week in Delhi, Bangalore, and Madras in February seeing old friends; Arun Kapur treated him to a great lunch and many memories in Delhi.  He is still living in the DC area but heading to NYC for the autumn to be the South Asia area advisor for the US mission to the UN for three months.  

CATE WHITCOMB continues to be employed at Chautauqua in the summer and for the WCTU the rest of the year and with spouse JACK HINZ (S) is an active member of the League of Women Voters and their Methodist church.  Travel to India in March 2018 with 11 Whitcomb family members, including siblings JOHN ('69), PATRICIA ('72) and BOB ('77) culminated in a three-day visit to Mussoorie and Woodstock.

BETSY TAYLOR had great fun with her cousin, Ginny Taylor exploring the Cincinnati home places of our paternal grandmother  --  Dr. Elizabeth Siehl Taylor -- mother of John Taylor ('29) and Carl Taylor ('32).  Betsy has been busy in her role as director of LiKEN -- a link-tank that connects scholars with communities.  Based in Lexington KY, she enjoyed travels out West to various forums about climate change and post-carbon energy transition. 

CARLTON HOKE managed to get his entire family together for a cruise this summer to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.

After 52 years, KAREN SMYRES WOLNER made it back to India in early April with son and daughter as well as sister, PEGGY ('72).  It was a wonderful trip and great to share that part of her life with her "children".  They left some of dad's and mom's ashes in Sisters Bazaar as that is where they first lived while in language school.

REBECCA HILL CORD still lives in the dense woods of eastern Texas, but traveled to Abu Dhabi to her niece graduate at NYU there.  Son Matthew and daughter Zoe, have moved in with her after his wife’s long illness.  She is very much enjoying being a grandmother; she still wants to travel but enjoys the nature of east Texas if not the politics.

DAVE THOMPSON retired from IBM at the end of June after 37 years with the company and almost immediately left with his wife Eleta Jones for a 2-week road trip vacation in Sweden which was just the right antidote to the sense of un-tetheredness that accompanied turning in his company laptop and home office phone.  Dave and Eleta continue to live in Hartford, CT, where they are both active in the local Quaker Meeting, and Dave is now pursuing his lifelong dream of becoming a flight instructor which carries deep roots from his experiences at Woodstock.

CLAIRE BLICKENSTAFF BEERY retired from teaching at Santa Rosa Junior College and is enjoying more time for family, music, gardening and planning their 5-week trip to India in October with husband Bill Haigwood, daughter Zoë, 3 friends and a week in Mussoorie.  Bill published his 4th novel and is working on the next set in the late 60s in Berkeley.  

MIRIAM HAQQ PRABHKAR, enjoying partial retirement, had her three sons with family, visit her in India from the States. It has been 10 years since they were all together in India.  It was great to introduce her two grandsons, Isaiah and Micah to the birth place of their father; they loved it and adapted so well!!   

LINDA GAMBLE MCKENDRY enjoys the variety of consulting, writing, face painting, jewelry selling (her sister's) and playing piano at events when invited but notes too many memorial services these days. Husband Jim still cautious with health issues. Her children and grandchildren are doing well; God is good.

MARY ELLEN FRITSCHLE NOGGLE says her dad turned 100 in April and she turned 70 three days later. The family feels very blessed to have him this long as they lost their mom so young (Mary had just turned 18). Her daughter Stephenie got married in July and her dad did the ceremony.  All is well with “me and mine,” God is so, so good.

PHIL DEVOL wrote that the poverty prevention work he is involved in continues to expand to more communities and into new sectors so he is sticking with it for a while longer.  More and more he feels drawn to sitting on verandahs and porches with family and friends.

KATHY COLEMAN YORK wrote that son Raymond married his sweetheart Cristina in January in Costa Rica. Kathy and husband Pat are staying active in various activities with their Seniors Association. They head to their home in Sarasota mid November but plan on selling it this winter.

RUTH YODER DYAL’S husband Jim, passed away on June 9. 2018 - 10 days short of his 90th birthday. Although her house seems large and empty she continues her medical practice which she loves, doing both the Ob and the Gyn.  Son Jamie is applying for fellowships in Pediatric Cardiology and twin Jon is in a fellowship in Global Health through Harvard. 

WARREN REES celebrated his 70^th birthday with Children and Grandchildren by renting a cottage at Callaway Gardens - had so much fun that they did it again this year. On December 20, Warren and Marie celebrate their 50^th anniversary. Everyone they knew in college said that they would last only six months, so he’s going to take out a large ad AJC to show them that they were wrong.

JOHN CHAFFEE published a book, the result of many years of research, entitled The Muslim Merchants of Premodern China: The History of a Maritime Asian Trade Diaspora, 750-1400 (Cambridge). Second (and more fun), he led a group of 16 Chaffees and friends on a two-week tour of China June 2018, splitting stops between tourist standards and out of the ordinary places. 

SUSY MCCULLOCH FRIEDERICKS and RICHARD FRIEDERICKS are enjoying retirement in Port Townsend, where they remodeled bathrooms and landscaped their back yard when not visiting children and grandchildren. Spring 2018 they took a 3-week driving tour of England and Scotland revisiting some of Richard’s memories from when he lived there long ago. Both have been on their local radio station, KPTZ, playing music from South Asia and Richard’s novel, Windhorse Warrior, was published in India last August. 

SHERRY SERGEANT COX and husband Steve are in good health; Steve turned 65 this year and is contemplating retirement in 2019 and Sherry continues part time work, Bible studies, teaching Korean and Japanese women English, a mission trip to Honduras, and enjoying being grandparents.  Daughter Sarah works for a chiropractor and her husband Tony is a Major in the USAF; daughter Stephanie and husband John, with the Highway Patrol, have 2 daughters and another granddaughter due in February 2019. 

PETER PETERSON and wife Sheri are happy and healthy with the exception of knee (Sheri) and hip (Pete) replacement.  We have an active life in NW Arkansas with the added blessing of our grandson, Ben.  He has been working on digitizing his and his dad’s photo slides dating back to 1946 and, of course, a slide history of his parents' years in India; he thinks he’s half done with 1000’s of slides.  

Raj Isar has been Education Director for the Geneva-based Aga Khan Trust for Culture since early 2017 and carries out the tasks this involves from his homes in Paris and Goa, where he and Galia Saouma spend 7 months of the year.  He is now Professor Emeritus at The American University of Paris, Visiting Professor at the University of Ahmedabad and Distinguished Scholar/Robert Schuman Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence.

IN MEMORIUM:  JUDITH SCHEURMANN BENDER, dearest classmate, passed away March 13, 2018.  There was a memorial service for her on Hat Island on June 2, 2018.  She suffered from COPD and was waiting for a double lung transplant. She is survived by her husband Larry, son Jon Lee, another son and daughter Chanelle as well as grandchildren.  She had worked as a model and was an artist and poet.